How Was Your Halloween?

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Mine was only so-so - about twenty trick-or-treaters at our house. But, all made some attempt at a costume, and all or nearly all said “Thank you” politely. Except the stunned three-year old in the pink bunny costume who has not apparently mastered the drill, and stared at me blankly when I answered the door. She got her candy, and her mother said “thank you” for her. So we have multiple pounds of leftover candy - whatever shall I do? :smiley:

It was stressful for Leet the Wonder Dog[sup]TM[/sup], who is horrified by the scary costumes, and who has also decided he is afraid of Halloween decorations (“A lighted skeleton! Inflatable lawn decorations! Panic time! WOOFWOOFWOOF!”). I spent some time training him that, when the doorbell rings, he is supposed to not bark, and run and wait on the landing at the top of the stairs. He mastered about half of that - he runs to the landing, but barks from there. Which does nothing for the ambience.

Doorbell rings 'WOOFWOOFWOOF!" Leet runs to the landing.

Grandpa opens the door and confronts the ToT-ers “Happy Halloween!”

WOOFWOOFWOOF!

Me: “Shut up, for heaven’s sake.”

WOOFWOOFWOOF!

ToT-ers: “Trick or treat!”

WOOFWOOFWOOF!

Me: “Here you go! Nice costume!”

WOOFWOOFWOOF!

ToT-ers: “Thank you!”

WOOFWOOFWOOF!

Me: “Shut up, for heaven’s sake.”

ToT-ers scamper off to my neighbor’s house

Me: “He doesn’t do Halloween - you might want to avoid him”.

WOOFWOOFWOOF!

Me: “Shut up, for heaven’s sake.”

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Most of the tricksters were from a trailer full that apparently got shipped into our suburb for the occasion.

Regards,
Shodan

#2

Pretty quiet. Been in this house 4 years. The first year there was literally 1 trick-or-treater. The second year there were a few dozen, and last year there were probably close to 100. Yesterday, back to a couple dozen. I bought a shit load of candy, too. Good thing I intentionally bought stuff I like!

There was only one set of kids that came in a car, which was a change from that year we got a ton, when almost everyone pulled up in a car. We’re not in a rural area, but I suspect they were either from another neighborhood, or another part of mine (it’s a HUGE neighborhood), and participation in Halloween seems to be fairly sparse (it’s a largely Hispanic, immigrant neighborhood). But only 1 pair of teens without costumes this year. Had another set of teens, but they were in full-body costumes, a chicken and a bunny. I complimented them on their commitment to the holiday.

ETA: I did have one pair of very young kids, about maybe 5 and 7, a boy and girl, respectively, and I’m pretty sure they were siblings, but anyways, they came to the door 3 times. They were cute and I wasn’t in any danger of running out of candy, so I still gave them candy each time.

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#3

Way fewer trick-or-treaters than in any past year. The entire neighborhood was quiet. Wonder if it just reflects changing demographics over time, or something else. One neighbor said they drove past a different part of town, and it was crazy busy.

My daughter and granddaughter came over for lunch - I took a couple hours off work (6 minutes away) and got to spend time w/ a 3 yr old Little Red Riding Hood. So that was pretty great!

At work, there was SO MUCH candy, and I have ZERO willpower, so I’m going on a long, hard bike ride today! :rolleyes:

#4

Got the usual number- ~30. Not as many too-old kids as in recent years. Good number of cute little ones.

One kid asked if I had any treats for his dog. ???

#5

Hardly any trick or treaters and huge bags of left over candy. I don’t know if this was due to cool weather (40’s F) or the police chase a bit earlier in the area but the neighborhood was dead.

#6

We had exactly one kid show up - the five year old from next door. An average year, IIRC, is about 20-25. It was raining here so most people with kids probably went to an indoor affair at one of the many churches that do that sort of thing. Our local mall also had a trick-or-treat party.

#7

My granddaughters came, dressed as Mermaids. That’s all the tot-ers I ever get. I had fixed them up a little bit of candy and a toy. Mom doesn’t like a load of sugar, so I complied. They asked for a pineapple so I bought each one a pineapple and a coconut. Mom and Son-of-a-wrek will have to figure out how to serve them. Yay! Once again I upped the Grandma game.

#8

I’ve got two dogs and I’m not trying to deal with them on Halloween night. I bought some large googly eyes and made a monster for the front door, that I put up with a sign that says “Good to SEE you! The dogs want the door closed so take some candy and have a good night! PS You can walk on the lawn!”

I put out a bowl of candy and close the door. I’ve been doing this about 4 years and the kids are good and don’t dump the candy and run. I spend 2 hours watching a movie and occupying the dogs. This year was pretty good, they didn’t even hardly bark out the window.

No idea how many kids I got. I got 5 small-ish bags of candy and I think I’ve got 2 left.

#9

^ A Facebook friend of my wife’s did the same thing: remembered a party at the last minute, put out a bowl of swag and had half the bowl still full when she got back! I am shocked (and pleased) that actually works! Kudos!

#10

I bought about 120 full-size candy bars (and bags of M&Ms, they were on sale at Costco), and by the end of the night there were about 6 left. It was pretty steady, usually only a few at a time, but once a huge pack of about 25 kids came all at once.

Costume winner for the night: Cindy Lou Who, who was absolutely adorable. Her mom had done her hair up in the little braids and curls. So cute! If I’d had my way, she would not have been able to walk off my front steps unassisted for all the candy I would’ve given her.

#11

And no more than 2? :wink:

#12

No customers. :frowning:

Aren’t you glad I didn’t say ‘costumers’?

#13

None, and we live in an established 'hood. I wonder if there’s just too much craziness these days for parents to risk letting the kids go out?

#14

We do the same thing each year. My gf buys a huge bag of candy “just in case”. We get zero trick-or-treaters. Every year.

#15

We actually had one for a change; his mom is a friend of ours. Then we went downstairs and hung out with some new neighbors on their patio, which faces the street; they had several come up to the patio.

#16

Numerous neighbors of mine did the tailgating approach - put one of those patio fire pits and some lawn chairs in the driveway and sit around talking and causally drinking in small groups around a fire while the kids come up and get 3-4 houses worth of candy at each stop. The weather was nice enough to do it.

#17

That actually sounds pretty cool. Efficient, and it brings the bonfire & community aspects back to the holiday.

#18

My 17-year-old son loves Halloween and he decorates our whole yard every year with inflatables and lights. In his mind he’s in a competition with a guy down the street who also decorates extensively. Between the two of them our neighborhood has become something of a destination and we usually get 300 or more kids. We had rain during the day yesterday, so it was down a little bit but there were still at least 200 trick-or-treaters. Not many under 5s; I suspect those parents went to indoor events because of the rain. Quite a few teenagers, but since both of my sons are teenagers I think that was more about socializing than trick-or-treating. My 17-year-old even took care of handing out the candy this year. He sat on the porch and gave out candy and accepted praise for his decorations. He had a good day. My 15-year-old son put on a costume and went and stood amongst the decorations so he could scare the older kids. He also had a good day.

#19

We had about 150 kids, which is typical. Most from outside the neighborhood. The cars start lining up on the street until they are circling around trying to find a parking spot.

One of our neighbors has a cotton candy machine and gives away bags of it. Pretty cool. One kid asked us for a cup of water instead of candy.

This year it was raining and maybe 58 degrees (F). After one little girl and her mother left our porch I looked down at the wet footprints and realized the mother was barefoot!

#20

For several years, we had exactly 2 ToT’s, they were my neighbors grandkids. My neighbor got exactly 3, they were her grandkids and my kid. Now that those three are older, we get zero. We used to buy candy, “just in case”, but it never happened, so now we buy candy and take it to the local firehouse for them to distribute with their own.